Cape Verde Week 75

Boa tarde,

Well we are in our final week here in Cape Verde. We were able to fly over to Praia last Saturday and have been staying at the mission home this week. The week is slowly moving by as there is very little for us to do. I have made an attempt to get Sister Neves ready to take over the medical (I think she will do fine). The President has asked for some of my opinions on changes needed in the mission etc.

Sister Neves feels it is necessary to feed us every 4 hrs. I am stuffed!!! They have been wonderful host and we appreciate their hospitality. We went with them on Thursday to Tarrafal, where the President had a few interviews, it was a nice ride and the scenery was totally different than our last visit. It has been raining now for about 3-4 weeks on and off. There is corn everywhere!! Praia was a mud hole for hours the other day due to the rain, and the ocean an ugly brown color as the draining water invades the coast. Assamado and the beach at Tarrafal, just about eveyrhting green is corn fields!

President & Sister Neves and Daneili in Tarrafal. E/S Waller overlooking the beach in Tarrafal.

The rain is one way to clean out the gutters although most seemed clogged with garbage. Sharon made cinnamon rolls yesterday, which was an office hit. We had the missionaries from Fogo come into Praia for transfer last night. They arrived at 1 am and it was close to 2:30 am before we collected the luggage and headed for their different assigned areas. It was 3 am when we finally rolled into bed.

The President and Sister Neves are out of town this weekend visiting Sal. So we have the run of the mission home. We have enjoyed the air-conditioning. It feels so good to dry out a little from the sticky humid feeling.

We had lunch with Elder & Sister Lopez today. They are a great couple who have served their full mission here in Praia. They will end their mission in November. They both speak Portuguese, and have been a great assistance here in Praia. Elder Lopez was born in Mindelo but has lived for years in Connecticut. Sister Lopez is from Brazil and a great cook. They have been heavily involved in the seminary and institute programs.

Elder Cruz from Mindelo heads home this week with us. Great missionary!!
Elder Wyson of Las Vegas, great smile, another of the wonderful missionaries here in Cape Verde.
Our happy Sister Silveira from Portugal. We will miss her and all the other missionaries.

Well that is about it for this week. We have a few missionaries still suffering with the flu but nothing major. We do have another Elder who is suffering with Kidney stones at the moment; maybe it’s in the water?

We leave on Tuesday morning for home, so this will be my last entry for the mission blog. I hope everyone has enjoyed our missionary adventures. I will probably try and keep up the blog, but not nearly as regular. So everyone email us occasionally and keep in touch.

We love and appreciate you all. It has been another wonderful experience to be in the mission field with opportunities daily to bare our testimony of the restoration of the Gospel and of the Savior. What a privilege to serve with such fine young men and women. We are amazed at their testimonies and abilities. God lives and loves us. Jesus Christ is our Lord and Savior. What a privilege to share that witness!

E/S Waller, Bama & Bampa, Mom & Dad

Cape Verde Week 74

Bom Dia,

I am writing from the Mission Home, yes we made it safe off the island of Fogo. Although it did cost me $120 extra dollars as the inter island airplane charges for extra luggage and weight. We were over just a bit, but I was not about saying anything to Sister Waller!!

Even though I paid extra one of our bags didn’t arrive with us ( it is only a 20 minute flight and there were only 16 people) we had to wait till the next flight to get the final bag! It really is a joke sometimes how they work things around here. We had plenty of room on the plane as there was one seat empty.

When we arrived we had to stay on the plane a few extra minutes as they took off a sick passenger. An ambulance was waiting for a patient, I think he was being transferred to the local hospital. Dani and Neia were waiting in the airport for the young man, so we were able to say hi to them.

Elder’s Thurgood and Erickson met us and helped us get around and settled in at the mission home. President and Sister Neves are off to Germany for a Conference and will not be back till sometime today.

We had a tearful good bye in Sao Filipe with the Sister’s. Sharon always grows close to the missionaries (I do too, but not quite like Missionary Mom). We had lunch on Friday with the Sisters and enjoyed a few hours with them. They, both, are sick or coming down with illness so that made it doubly hard. We had some teary eyed moments with the members, especially Alberto & Zita. They are good people and we love Cabo Verde.

We had a very successful party (fiesta) on Thursday evening. I think we had well over a 100 in attendance and we danced. I danced for 2 hrs and was worn out at the end of the evening. I think they really like the Macarena and limbo!!! Everyone had a good time and I have encouraged the youth to continue with their dance activities.

Well we will spend a week here in Praia before heading home. I hope to be able to get Sister Neves up to speed on the medical end of things. Other than that it might be slightly boring, maybe I can teach Danielli how to do the Macarena. Danielli is the President’s 12 year old daughter.

We send our love to everyone and will be seeing many of you soon.

Love

E/S Waller, Mom & Dad, Bama & Bampa

Cape Verde Week 73

Boa tarde,

This has been an extremely busy week; mainly with sick Elders and Sisters. I think we have a viral stomach bug going around, as we have lots of sick missionaries. Also we have a serious medical problem with one Elder, who will be returning home after just 3 weeks in the mission field. He will be leaving this Sunday night and we hope he does well. We have him on antibiotics but are concerned over spreading infection to a recent knee surgery. I don’t think he will be back even if the problem resolves easily.

On Monday we rode with the Zone up to the volcano. There were quite a few who wanted to climb, but there were also those who had already been on top and just wanted to hang out. So we wandered the small village, ate some of the fruit off the vine and trees like; grapes, apples, pomegranate. We then headed up to the hotel to order lunch and play “Uno”. They had fun but it was a long day. We did get back to Sao Filipe till 8:30pm.

It has been raining and so the mountains are now green and starting to produce fruit. Zenita, Sister Skinn and Waller are picking promagranates, not bad. HMMM I wonder if someone knows how to make promagranate jam?

The next day I wasn’t feeling really very well so I let Sharon handle the dance activity and music practice. Then the rest of the week Sharon was under the weather with the flu bug. I stayed busy calling and helping the sick Elders and making arrangements with SLC for the return of our Elder.

We continue to visit with members and share the gospel message. They all love for you to come but are slow to make changes in their lives. I suppose that isn’t any different than other parts of the world. At least here they really do enjoy the visit.

Elder Tuttle demonstrating how wide the larva gully is by Cova Figueira.Sister Skinn showing us how she always knows how to pose for a picture.
Here is our Zone Activity photo, minus Sister Waller & I , we were loaded down with cameras. Fromleft to right: Elders Reynolds, Da Cruz, De Cruz, Sigeuira, Ray, Gunn, Tuttle, Fernadez, Wyson, and Luthi with 2 local members. Sisters Skinn, Samira, and Sister Silveira

We received word that we are flying out next Saturday for Praia. I am to spend the week helping Sister Neves get ready to do the medical stuff in the mission. She is really nervous as I mentioned before, but I hope to give her some confidence in the job. I believe they have a single Sister (nurse) who is coming but they need a Companion for her.

Well that is about the news for this week. Till next week from Praia, tchau.

E/S Waller

Cape Verde Week 72

Boa Tarde,

This has been a slow week that quickly passed us by. I don’t know how it happens but you turn around and the time is gone. We have spent the week with a few visits and lots of dance practice. I have become the line dance king and the youth are lovin it. We held 3 practices this week; kind of like jazzercise if you ask me. By the end of the hour of practice I am just dripping with sweat and in dire need of a shower and lots of fluids. The Christmas tree wall comae down this week, sad. It was a great reminder of our friends and Sister Waller had a hard time saying good bye to the tree. Thanks to all our friends who sent cards, it filled a wall.

We also were kept busy this week with sick Elders. We have an Elder who suffers from kidney stones. He had a number of attacks last January and this week he repeated the process. Pretty much every day he called and was wondering about the symptoms he was suffering. After numerous phone calls to the President and Area Medical, it was decided that he should return home for medical care. These are not easy decisions. It helped that he was only 2 transfers away from going home. So tickets were purchased and off he went. Hopefully the Drs at home can find out the cause of his stone production and give him some relief.

We also had the usual stomach aches and diarrhea problems. I t is a real hard lesson to learn that food does spoil and needs to be prepared properly, or else you get sick. We have a few Elders that have a hard time learning these lessons. Some think that because they have been here for a year or so, that their systems are now acclimatized to the water and food, Nah!!!!!! Oh well I suppose that is why we are here.
Luncheon with the Cova Figueira Elders Luthi & Reynolds and Sisters Skinn and Silveira, we had lasagne, and corn bread. Good, with Sister Waller's special Yoki dessert.

Alberto and Zita are still working on getting to the Temple in September. Alberto had an accident this week as a brick wall fell on his foot and ankle. He has had many trials and Satan is working over time to keep from getting to the Temple, but he has a great attitude and faith. The x-rays were horrible but I couldn’t see and break. So he will be laid up for a week or so letting the bruising go down. We plan on new x-rays this week, hopefully better. I have made a number of visits to his home to check on him. He was placed on ibuprofen for the pain by the Doctor and told to take one 200mg every 8 hrs. a real waste. So I took him some more pills and upped the dose.

We learned today that Neia is moving to Praia to be with her husband. When they returned from the Temple, Dani started a new training in Praia, so she has decided to not be alone for 6 months but go and be with him. She will be missed in the YW program, she is a keeper.

Neia and Sister Waller with some of the items Neia crocheted for her.

We continue to struggle with activation and finding new people to teach. The common response of our questions about teaching the gospel is “oh I am a member”. Well why aren’t you coming to church? At which time the readily admit that they are fubecka’s; which means slackers!!! Most have no desire to return but love to visit. So we keep searching for the ones the spirit is preparing. We marvel at the dedications of the Elders and Sisters; they work hard and love the people. They teach with the spirit. I think in many cases they are planting seeds and sometime in the future the harvest will be great. They do occasionally get depressed and we are here to pump them up (usually with cookies) and soon they are back at work.

We held a choir practice tonight for the up coming branch conference. We decided to sing “We are Sowing” as they have been taught to sing it to the “Come thou Fount of Many Blessings” tune. Since they can’t read music and have no music person they have developed some bad habits, but on the whole they are doing wonderful.

Well that is about it for this week. The new dance of the week is “Boot Scootin Boogie”. They really do like line dancing. I will be making some CD’s with dance music so they can continue their dancing activities.

Tchau we are now down to 23 days. Love to all.

E/S Waller, Mom & Dad, Bama & Bampa

Cape Verde Week 71

Boa tarde,

Well we end an eventful week, some ups some downs. We started with downers as Sister Waller was sick the first few days of the week. That always puts a damper on things. Our FHE fell through this week. Many of the people in town have farm plots up in the hills. So when the rain comes they head to the hill to weed and plant their corn, beans and other vegetables. So many people are out of town all week; I suppose they camp out up the hills to save on travel expenses.

We did hold a FHE with Maria Amado and her very extended family. We had 25 people in attendance; 3 boys the rest girls. Most of the girls were from 13-8 yrs old. Sister Silveira gave a very good lesson on Faith using the Story of Jesus Walking on the water. We enjoyed popcorn refreshments and some very nasty tasting drink. It got rather hot in the 8’x 8’ room with all those bodies but we survived.

Hey we actually got rain this week. On Wednesday (P-day) we had a down pour that lasted about 20 minutes. It came down really good and we had a large puddle in front of our apartment. The hills are starting to turn green!! We could sing “The Hills Are Alive” they are turning green.
Elders Ray, Tuttle and Fernandez not use to rain fall in Cape Verde

We visited with Gaita and her family and I gave a lesson on keeping the commandments, and receiving blessings. We then enjoyed hot rolls Sister Waller had made for the meeting. Gaita had given Sister Waller some marmalade when she went VT, but sister Waller told her it would be much better with hot bread, so the rolls on the next visit. It was a nice meeting.

We continue to work with the youth on dancing; some have dropped out and we are down to about 15 regulars at Fonte Alexio Branch and 8 at the Sao Filipe Branch. They definitely have their favor dances; Virginia Reel, Achy Breaky Heart, Macarena and Love Potion #9. They aren’t real keen on the waltz and Cha Cha, we keep working on them. This week it is the Electric Slide!!

The macarena, fun fun fun!
We have hit some road bumps in the mission as far as travel. The Fogo airport is now closed and all contact with the main island is by boat; that runs twice a week (maybe). I was talking with President Neves this evening and he is now unable to get to Mindelo by plane as everyone is going their for the Baia Celebration. When people go they go for a month, so the planes are all booked up. So we definitely will be taking the boat to Praia in 3 weeks. If you could see the boats you would not be to thrilled with that idea either.

We heard tonight that Sister Mack has had to return to Portugal for medical care. We are sorry to lose her. We are now down to just 8 Sister missionaries. We have also had a bad run of illness in the mission with stomach flu problems and Elder Alexander suffered another bout of Kidney stones; we hope to get him through the next couple of months without further problems. Sister Skinn was over yesterday, having a little down day; she said she was visually constipated. HMMM I will need to think about that for awhile. Her spirits seemed to be up today, though. Also Alberto suffered a fall and thinks he broke his ankle. We will find out tomorrow and hope it isn’t real serious as that will delay their planned trip to the temple in Recife.

Now it is the end of the week and I am coming down with a sinus infections! Oh well, we keep trucking on and the time keeps winding down. Thanks for all your support and emails.

Elder Wixom and Brown in Assamada!

Elder Tuttle, Briggs and Brown on a PDay activity.

Love to all,
E/S Waller, Mom & Dad, Bama & Bampa